How long will the cooling off in the investment market last? What are the main factors currently shaping demand? Which projects will banks lend money for today? In an interview with Property Forum, BNP Paribas Real Estate experts Małgorzata Fibakiewicz and Tomasz Arent summarised the current situation in the retail and warehouse sectors in Poland.

The end of the year for retail real estate in Poland was marked by a rise in inflation and the various consequences that followed it, increases in energy prices and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

The office market in Cluj-Napoca is the second largest in Romania following the one in Bucharest and there are eight office buildings with a total leasable area of 130,000 sqm under development that will be completed by 2025, according to real estate consultancy Fortim Trusted Advisors, part of BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance. 

BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland has summarized the first three months in the Polish investment market and pointed out, among other things: reduction in investors' appetite and waiting caused by the war in Ukraine, combat with inflation, rising commodity prices, as well as a hesitant start of the year in the sector of logistics and industrial investments.

Between the pandemic, the war, rising prices and increasingly frequent warnings of recession — these are the conditions in which the retail sector operated in the first quarter of 2022. The authors of the cyclical report from BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland point out, among others: continued strengthening of the position of discount store chains and growing interest in facilities with a high potential for modernization, expansion and repositioning.

Office Warsaw faces major challenges: deteriorating macroeconomic indicators, rising construction and utility costs, and upward pressure on rents and service charges. In addition, there are delays resulting from broken supply chains, the spectre of a supply gap and a strong reshuffling in the demand structure. On the other hand, the capital city market reports a quarterly record in lease agreements signed and attracts an IT giant that buys one of the newest office-mixed use complexes; all this is according to the summary of the first quarter in the Warsaw office market prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts.

The first quarter of the year in BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland was marked by internal promotions. A total of 9 commercial real estate experts who advise clients on a daily basis, working in office, industrial and logistics leasing departments, as well as in property management, investment markets and design consultancy departments, climbed a step up the career ladder.

Class A offices in Bucharest have some of the cheapest rents compared to other large European cities with strong business centres, according to a report by BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance members. 

The warehouse and logistics space sector in Poland maintained its high growth rate in 2021. The results included, among others, record amounts of new space delivered to the market, a record number of square metres under construction, as well as a record demand. Summing up last year, experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland highlight the influence of e-commerce on the situation of the whole sector, the increasing interest of logisticians, developers and investors in ecological issues. They also point out the bottlenecks such as rising construction costs, difficulties in materials supply, limited land availability and increasing shortage of qualified workers.

Experts from the consulting company BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland summed up the final quarter of 2021, regarding office space in Warsaw. The market closed the year with 325,000 sqm of new modern space, but vacancy rate are increasing, and an escalation in contract renewals is agitating the situation within the demand structure. Therefore "flexibility" has turned out to be the most important word for all market players. The authors underline that the situation in 2022 will be comparable.